Once Upon A Gender Pay Gap

Things aren’t always what they seem. Find out how a “pay rise” highlighted a gender pay gap.

This is my personal story about the reality and long lasting impact of finding out the man sat next to you is earning more, and you are a statistic of the gender pay gap.

In one of my recruitment jobs I was paid as a day rate contractor. This was a new experience for me which I was really excited about, the entrepreneur in me loved that I was finally starting a Ltd Company of my own, and after more than 10 years of working as a Tech Recruiter I really did start to feel like I knew what I was talking about.

Believe me, there is nothing more exciting than thinking up the name of your Ltd Company, or maybe that’s just me The Gender Pay Gap was the last thing on my mind.

I started my contract in the middle of September .

By the end of the year had re-designed and rolled out a new recruitment process, at the same time as recruiting over 30 new engineers into the organisation.

Full stack developers were(and still are) illusive, and in high demand. Managing to hire anyone in that time was nothing short of a miracle. Call me a Unicorn Recruiter, it really was that big a deal.

As the hiring needs and figures came out for the year ahead, it was clear that we would need more recruiters.

A new recruiter who happened to be a male joined us in January.

In March, my initial 6-month contract was reviewed, and I was given some amazing news by my manager.

I was getting a £50 per day increase.

This felt amazing and was going to make a big difference to me financially. It was positioned as something I was being given because I had done such a good job of redesigning everything whilst recruiting double the amount of people they thought I would.

I felt proud of the work I had done.

it was a rainy day in March and while I was on the bus with the new ‘male’ recruiter he was speculating about whether his contract would be renewed.

That was when I realised that my “pay-rise” wasn’t what it seemed. In-fact it was quite the opposite..

You see, people talk, and people talk about money.

I found out the new ‘male’ recruiter had joined on £50 per day more than I was on.

My “pay-rise” had only brought us to the same level.

‘How naive am I?’ I thought. Here was me innocently assuming that he would be on the same or, dare I say it, slightly less, given the difference in how we worked.

The reality though, was that I had designed and lead everything, the new male recruiter was senior, but I had definitely taken on more responsibility for driving change.

He kept the machine I had designed turning, that was all.

Don’t get me wrong he was good at his job, but he knew he was, and sometimes wasn’t all that helpful.

For example the company had launched a new HR system. Unsurprisingly we had endless calls from hiring managers not knowing how to use it. He merely pointed them to the online guides, which was a big contrast to my hard-working, unassuming nature meaning I would be round at their desk helping them and sharing knowledge.

Then I did the maths.

He was paid £50 a day more than me for about 12 weeks, as I punched it into a calculator, the stark reality bit me.

Three Thousand Pounds.

That’s a lot of money, hard facts. It felt like a punch in the stomach.

All those achievements and feelings of being respected as an expert in my field, the confidence that gave me to challenge people all paled into insignificance. I certainly didn’t feel like a unicorn now.

I felt betrayed (and still do for the record) particularly by my manager who had dressed it up as a reward. That couldn’t have been further from the truth.

There’s no happily ever after to this gender pay gap story either, if that’s what you’re waiting for.

I’m still £3000 out of pocket.

I was a contractor, and the reality is you can be replaced/gotten rid of quite easily if you start to become a problem.

I didn’t want to be a problem.

I quietly got on with my work and swallowed up the fact that I had done more work for less money than the person next to me doing the same if not a lesser role.

Because I was a woman, and he was a man.

My naivety cost me thousands of pounds.

If you’re a woman reading this, the best advice I can give you is to be aware. “Awareness gives you choices”.

I’ve spent the last few years educating myself on the gender pay gap and learning skills to spot situations where I might not be paid/treated equally. The Gender Pay Gap still exists, but…..

Now, I can choose what to do about it.

I negotiate harder, I ask more questions, sometimes I say no and walk away.

A wise woman once told me, “people won’t have YOUR best interests at heart, but they will always have their OWN”.

You can choose too.

If you’re interested in positioning yourself to overcome these sorts of challenges I provide tailored coaching services to support women in tech. You can find out more here: Services – Once Upon A Tech Recruiter